I spent the first 10 minutes thinking I had accidentally downloaded a Furry version of Vision of Escaflowne or El Hazard. What is this world? This is not ThunderCats, by Thundera!

Welcome to Agrabah. City of mystery, of enchantment.

The citizens of Thundera are complety ignorant of all things, “technology”. Seriously, guys? The whole reason the original ThunderCats were alive when their SPACESHIP crash landed on a distant planet was because they were in SUSPENDED ANIMATION..

Also, for some reason (and this is what irked me the most, honestly) Tigra is Lion-O’s older brother (their father is a Lion, in case you were wondering) but it’s Lion-O who is the crown prince. How does that even happen? Is Tigra a bastard? Was he adopted? Should he be renamed Ligra? Tigra’s also a lot less ghei in the new series, boo. I liked that he was kinda sexually ambiguous before. Oh, was that just me?

Bromance

I also can’t get over just how anime everything looks. Haha.

On to the good:

It takes getting used to, but it’s actually very well done. The design of the castles, the buildings are gorgeous. The animation is fluid, although the incorporation of CGI with the 2D stuff isn’t as smooth as it could be..

I am also a little relieved that nobody looks like wrestling rejects anymore. No one’s in speedo’s yay! The costumes don’t look as bad as I originally thought they did in the teasers, but Panthro still looks too much like Jet from Cowboy Bebop.

Overall, it’s a pretty solid production with a very promising story. I just don’t understand why it had to be a ThunderCat remake. You could replace all the ‘Cats with original characters and still have the beginnings of a great animated series.

I will admit, I got chills the first time Lion-O did the whole, “ThunderCats, HOOOOOOO!” bit.

Thunder, thunder, thunder, ThunderCats! Kamehameha!

So yeah, maybe I will tune in for next episode. For, you know, Science.

BECK is about these five guys –Chiba (Vocals), Koyuki (Vocals, Guitars), Ryusuke (Lead Guitars), Taira (Bass) and Saku (Drums)– who form this band and are trying to make it big in the Japanese music scene.

Huh, there’s not a lot I can add to that to describe the plot. It’s mostly character driven, focusing on the band members’ relationships with one another.

This is the first anime live-action adaptation I’ve watched where the actors are just as, if not more attractive than their animated counterparts.

Case in point.

The movie was a pretty good adaptation of the series. Of course since it’s pressed for time, there wasn’t a lot of character growth and the relationships between the characters weren’t fleshed out as well in the animated series if fleshed out at all. The American characters look very cartoonish and border on stereotype, and I thought they mis-cast Maho. The actress (Kutsuna Shiori) was pretty, but she lacked the badass vibe animated/manga Maho had. The guy who played Chiba (Kiritani Kenta) was awesome though. He got all of Chiba’s quirks without looking forced.

BECK was a fun watch. I now feel like I have to rewatch the anime since it’s been years. I also feel the need to sing in a band again. I only wish they used some of the music in anime because it was so iconic of the show, so I leave you with the anime’s opening theme.

At the start of 2010, I made myself a list of goals for the year. Number one on that list was to finish a series of paintings. I had this concept I wanted to flesh out, you see. It’s been a year now and I have finished a total number of NONE. Not a single painting for 2010.

How depressing.

This year, I’ve decided to set the bar low. My only goal for this year is to lose the 5 or so pounds I’ve gained since my thesis/callcenter days.

Team Ground Zero. The last team I was with before I resigned.

This photo was taken about two weeks before my resignation became effective and look at me. When I wear that shirt now, my belly sticks out and instead of a sharply defined jaw, I have a gaussian-blurred one. I also have skinny jeans that I can’t wear comfortably anymore because I can’t bend my knees properly in them.

Now, I’m not a diet person. I don’t believe in depriving myself of food, especially since I don’t eat that much to begin with. My only battleplan is this: Consume less junkfood and soda and walk home from EDSA instead of taking the jeep.

Mostly accurate walking route

So far, I’ve been sticking to it. My only exception to the walk-home-rule is when it’s past 9pm. Because while I’d love to lose weight, I don’t want to get mugged in the process.